The Front Door to Talent Management
One of the biggest problems I see today with talent management suite vendors is the demand on the user for a single standard of usage. Nearly all of the vendors force a set of requirements on the user to access their talent management applications to do performance reviews, design succession plans, create requisitions etc. Those requirements center around driving users solely to the vendors web application to interact and transact.
This is one of the greatest challenges in talent management today because users and managers aren’t always working in their browser…especially those that travel frequently. As a result, the users are forced into to the applications by an event, such as performance appraisal time, instead of going there to actually do their job better. For talent management to have long term success, the applications must have multiple tentacles for the user to access, interact and derive value.
So you are probably asking…give me a few examples. OK…
1. Using the #1 HR application of choice, the employee directory, as the front door to talent management. You can search for an employee but also get to know more about them (from the integration with an employee profile of course), and have the ability to see all necessary and available information for the employee (performance data, succession pools, tags, and even “friends” in the future).
2. Using Microsoft Office or other productivity tools to interact with the applications to update the application and actually transact with the system (ie do a performance review). One of the things I (and the audience) loved about Taleo’s new performance application at the launch last year wasn’t the fancy-pants user interface that many raved about, but the integration with Microsoft Outlook to interact with the application.
3. Using RSS readers to share, publish and push HR data to users can have real-time and offline access to HR information that would accelerate decision-making.
4. Incorporating consumer-based applications or features such as Facebook or Twitter into the application. One of the best features most of my enterprise friends use on Facebook is “Status Update”, or the ability for individuals to push updates about where they are or what they are doing. The enterprise usage could be huge and think about the stickiness that would create to drive users to the talent management system.
I guess what I am trying to say in all of this is that talent management must have multiple front doors for long-term success and value creation!
Technorati Tags: talent management, usability, social software
6 Comments Add your own
1. THomas | August 6th, 2008 at 4:40 am
Jason
Indeed.
HR needs to learn from Finance. hardly anyone enters stuff into the GL. It just gets there as part of normal business.
HR systems of all sorts need to do a much better job of deriving information instead of constantly insisting on data entry.
The best UI is no UI at all.
2. Jason Corsello | August 6th, 2008 at 11:37 am
Yahtzee. Google’s goal is to take the user element out of the interaction. I wish most enterprise vendors would think the same!
3. James Harvey | August 6th, 2008 at 7:55 pm
Jason - Really enjoyed the posting.
On a daily basis at work, most of us only use Microsoft Office, email, a browser and a few operational systems/tools. These are the mission critical tools for Line of Business workers (e.g. folks directly driving top-line results).
In my mind, there are still two important next steps for talent management applications. First, casting the perspective of talent processes within a primarily business context (HR secondarily). Second, embedding talent processes/data/analytics within business tools. You’ve highlighted both points nicely in this posting and previous postings.
I’m hoping talent management vendors accelerate their transition from an HR centric view of talent towards a business centric view of talent.
Again, enjoyed the posting.
4. Mike | August 7th, 2008 at 7:34 am
Glad this stream of thinking is carrying through. I’m a huge fan of the idea - here
5. Meg Bear | August 12th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
Of course I’m also very excited to see HR (and Talent) applications grow in use and importance and I agree with you on your view of some ways that this will happen.
All of this is goodness, but I am still hopeful that this is tied in with a broader strategy for the business vs. just a “cool” thing to do.
I think that having a broader business strategy can incorporate all of this, while still helping the HR department better define their role in the process. In the end, to me, it’s about vision, leadership and execution. Software is just one piece.
6. Bill Kutik | August 13th, 2008 at 4:33 am
Great basic concept, Jason, but I fear you’ve described a distant future. Many of the doors you suggest to TM are likely to be locked:
2. Using MS Office for application access. Ask SAP how many customers have bought Duet, their ground-breaking integration of Office as an on-ramp to their apps. Perhaps James can offer insight into what percentage of Taleo customers actually use Office to access his PM application. Hey, I just liked its “fancy pants” interface!
3. You have personal experience to know that at least today, not many HR people know what RSS means, let alone how to use it or to set up a reader page to receive the material.
4. How many enterprises are gonna let Facebook and Twitter inside the firewall? And with every TM vendor offering a person profile, isn’t Facebook’s a little redundant, even though more fun? I agree its broadcast of status changes to your network is useful, except for categories like “taking a nap.” So useful in fact that LinkedIn copied it — without telling any of its users, of course. And we thought the airlines had a monopoly on treating its customers with contempt!
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